Role Models
Mom My mom was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan to a middle-class family. She was the eighth child of eleven children in total. She only had two sisters who were married when she was very young and therefore, she grew up as a tomboy from the direct influence her eight brothers. She grew up with love and care from both her parents and her siblings. She never had any petty fights or arguments with any of her siblings and treated her parents with the utmost respect. While growing up, her parents gave her the simplest yet most meaningful present: how to live one’s life with simplicity, modestly and honesty. During her teenage years, she experienced a very unfortunate event; the murder of her elder brother who was also her best friend. It left her with a huge impact of loss and sadness. As time passed, the wounds slowly healed but she never forgot him and wished to never experience anything similar again. As she grew older, her parents arranged a marriage with my dad and respecting her parents’ wishes, gave her consent without ever glancing at his picture once. The one thing she remembers the most during the time of her marriage was the advice her parents had given her. She believes the advice her parents gave her was the best present any one could ever give their daughter and is the key to her everlasting successful marriage. The advice that she still remembers vividly is: “Treat your husband with the utmost respect and love him only, treat his parents as your parents. Take care of them as you would of us and treat his siblings as yours. That is now your home, it is where you will live and will also die. If you ever come to our house and backbite about them, the doors of our house are closed to you forever. Take care of yourself and be happy.” She did just that and has been married to my dad for the last twenty-one years with four healthy children. She has had her ups and down but nothing that she could not overcome, especially with the thought of her parent’s advice in mind. She is one of the persons I respect the most in the world and look up to. Many of my friends have told me their need and desire for a female role model but I have never felt that need as I already have one right beside me and guiding me. Growing up observing my mom, the way she acts, behaves and her habits, I must say that she is one of the best person anyone can have the honour of knowing. She is very kind, encouraging, responsible, caring and respectful of others. She has always treated my grandparents with respect and took care of their needs without complaining about it. This earned her a high level of respect from not only my grandparents but also from my dad. She became best friends with my dad’s siblings and this can be seen just from the interactions between them. She has always spent time with us (her children) and has always been patient with us. She always encourages us to do our best and live an honest life. She always encourages us to do the right things without burdening or pressuring us. Out of the various things I admire and respect about her, one thing that always makes me emotional is the fact that she does everything and anything for us children, to make us happy and to take care of our needs. She makes me want to be a better person, makes me want to work harder and do good things in life. In all honesty, she is one of the main reasons of who and what I am today and who I want to be in the future. Looking at her, I feel very proud to have her as my role model and if she was not in my life, I feel I would have been living a very reckless and meaningless life. Holy Prophet Muhammad saw Holy Prophet Muhammad saw was born 570 AD in Makkah. He was given the name Muhammad which means the most praiseworthy. His father passed away before his birth. After his birth, as accordance with the customs, Prophet Muhammad saw was taken in by a wet nurse to spend some of his childhood in the countryside where fresh and open air was available for healthy and fit growth. Five years later he returned to live with his mother and a year later, his mother passed away. He was then taken in by the care of his grandfather who also passed away after two years and was then taken in by his uncle. He was raised with tremendous amount of love by his uncle and was taken well care of. His uncle was more than glad to take care of him and was amazed at Prophet Muhammad saw’s noble and chaste habits. As he grew older, his habits and character of piety and forbearance also progressed and was admired by many and eventually his reputation which had spread throughout Makkah had earned him the titles of “Sadiq” (the truthful) and “Amin” (the trustworthy). Soon this news reached the ears of a prosperous lady who was also honorable and pure. She proposed a marriage proposal to Prophet Muhammad saw which he accepted and therefore she had the honour of becoming the first wife of Prophet Muhammad saw. Soon after her marriage she gave all of her wealth to Prophet Muhammad saw to do so whatever he pleased and he spent all that wealth in aiding orphans, helping the poor and taking care of the sick and looking after widows. He spent his whole life helping people and trying to guide them to the path of righteousness. He was a man worthy of utmost respect by everyone on this planet. I have always looked up to Prophet Muhammad saw. I really admire him with all my heart and he undoubtedly has all my respect, all that I can offer. There are no words that can describe just how much I look up to him and respect him. His simple, modest yet honest life is very commendable and I want to live a similar life to him. I feel as if I can even be just one percent of what he was, my spiritual life will be full and complete. There are many things that I admire about him such as the fact that he never in his entire life, not even once, lied and he always put the needs of others before him and treated everyone with the utmost respect, whether they were older than him or younger. However, amongst all these things, one thing that I respect the most about him is that he was the first person during those times that encouraged others to respect women. During the time, he was alive, women were treated as objects and property of men. They were given no rights and had to follow all commands of men. Baby girls were buried alive and killed. However, he was the first man that gave respect to women. He encouraged others to do the same and helped women obtain the rights and respect they deserved. He was also the first person that helped women get the right to a divorce if needed and the right to part of inheritance of their father’s property. As a woman, I do not know how to express just how much I appreciate and respect him for this. The fact that he did not look down upon women and helped them out when they were treated unjustly, he is my hero. He is someone I have always looked up to, still do and will always do. That is why I am thanking him in the best way I can; by following his teachings and encouraging others to do the same. The way I see it, he was a precious and the best gift that God gave the mankind and I hope to become just like him.